The Stein Ch. 01

When Nicky stepped inside she stood next to me looking at the dark red puddle. Suddenly she put her hand over her mouth and ran to the bathroom. I could hear her retching as she vomited into the toilet. I guess the sight of the blood and the smell, were just too much for her. I wanted to go to her and help but I didn't think my stomach was strong enough for me to be of any assistance.

I waited outside the bathroom until Nicky stopped throwing up. After she washed her face I guided her from the bathroom through the kitchen and into the family room. I sat down on the sofa with her and tried to comfort her. As I sat with my arm around Nicky I looked around the room. There were books strewn all over the floor along with several knick-knacks. I looked over at my collection of beer mugs and steins and all of them were on their shelf except for the one that Nicky had brought home from Germany for me.

I was wondering if it had been stolen when Nicky interrupted my thoughts.

"I'm sorry Eric. I wanted to be strong for you but seeing all that blood just brought everything back to me. I am all right now," Nicky said.

"Would you like a glass of water?" I asked.

"No, I am fine," she said, "and besides, I am supposed to be taking care of you. I think we should get you up to bed and then I'll fix you some lunch and bring it up."

"I don't think that is a good idea," I said. "I don't think I am up to climbing those stairs right now and I don't think you need to be exposed to the mess at the bottom of the stairs again. I have an idea. Why don't you fix me a sandwich for my lunch and leave it in the refrigerator and then go back to work."

"I can't leave you here by yourself."

"Listen, I think you would feel much better if you didn't have to be here when they come to clean up the blood in the hall. I'll be fine. I will lie on the sofa and rest and when I get hungry I can get the sandwich," I said.

"I don't know. I just don't feel right about leaving you by yourself."

"I'll be fine," I said. "School starts next week and I know you still have a lot to do to get ready for the new school year. I will take it easy and I'll call you if I have any problems."

"When you get home tonight we can start cleaning up this mess," I said. At that moment I saw the stein. It was smashed into little pieces on the hearth of the fireplace. Nicky saw what I was looking at and began to cry.

"It's okay Nicky," I said. "The stein can be replaced. Now make me a sandwich and get out of here."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay then, I'll go to work," she said. "I think you are right, I would feel better being away from here until the foyer is cleaned. I can't look at that without feeling sick."

"That should be gone by the time you get home," I said.

Nicky did as I suggested and made the sandwich for me and put it into the refrigerator. Then she left for work.

The cleaners showed about an hour later, while I was eating my sandwich. I went to the door and let them into the foyer. The man who appeared to be in charge looked at the blood puddle on the floor.

"Is this all of it or are there more spots that need cleaning?" he asked me.

"That should be the only spot but you might check the stairs and the wall on the landing to see if there was any spatter up there," I answered.

"This should only take an hour to clean and deodorize. Whose blood is it?"

"Mine."

"Wow. Looks like at least two pints," he said. "You're lucky to be alive."

"How could you tell it was two pints?" I asked.

"I have had a lot of experience cleaning up crime scenes, after a while you just know," he said.

Crime scene... This was my home; it was difficult to think of it as a crime scene.

The cleaners began their work and I went back to the kitchen to finish my sandwich. When I had finished eating I put my plate into the sink and went back into the family room. I was about to sit down when I thought that I should check my safe to see if the burglars had broken into it. In our house there was a cabinet built into the wall above the fireplace. It was designed as a place to put a television. We had an entertainment center along an adjacent wall so I used the space over the fireplace for my safe. I didn't have much in the safe, just insurance policies, legal papers, savings bonds, and some stock certificates. I also had about one hundred dollars in cash in the safe.

The door to the cabinet was partially opened so I assumed that the burglars must have seen the safe but when I opened the door the safe appeared to be intact. There was no damage to the outside of the safe so it didn't look as though anyone had tried to break into it and it didn't appear that anyone had even tried to move it.

I opened the safe to check the contents and found that nothing was missing. That was a relief. I locked the safe again and closed the cabinet doors. For a moment I contemplated cleaning up the items broken and scattered around the room but I realized that I didn't have the energy so I lay down on the sofa and rested.

By the time Nicky came home from work the foyer was spotless. The coppery smell was replaced by the scent of cinnamon. I thought that was a strange scent to use as a deodorizer but I kind of liked it. I had thought that sending Nicky to work that day was a good idea but when she got home I wasn't so sure. She seemed very stressed out and agitated. It took twenty minutes and a large scotch to get her to relax.

When I asked her why she was so stressed out she began to cry.

"I just want this all to go away," she said. "I don't want to think about it anymore."

"I am sure the police will catch these guys soon," I said, but that didn't seem to comfort Nicky very much.

We didn't get around to doing any cleaning like I had planned. Nicky just wanted to sit close to me on the sofa all evening.

That night was the first time in two weeks that Nicky and I slept together but there was no sex. I wasn't physically up to it and Nicky seemed to be afraid to touch me anywhere other than to hold my hand or kiss my face. I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up thinking I was hearing someone in the house and every time I woke up I would find that Nicky was also awake.

*****

Tuesday went better. I was feeling a little stronger and was able to walk down the stairs by myself. I had breakfast with Nicky and then I cleaned the kitchen while Nicky got ready for work. Later that morning Detective Trenca stopped by to see how I was doing and to get a list of anything that was stolen. While we talked I put on a pot of coffee.

"Did you make a list of what's missing?" Detective Trenca asked.

"No, I didn't because nothing seems to be missing." I said.

"Really?" Detective Trenca said with an ironic sound to his voice.

"You probably have already thought about this Detective, but I think there must have been at least two people involved," I said.

Detective Trenca seemed to be amused by that. "Why don't we get a little less formal? Call me Tony and if it's all right with you, I'll call you Eric."

"That's fine with me," I said.

"Okay then, Eric, let me hear your theory," Tony said.

"Well, we know someone was upstairs because he is the one who shot me. The fact that the downstairs was a mess, indicating that someone had searched the first floor, but nothing was missing, makes me think that whoever was searching the first floor bolted when he heard the gun shots or shortly thereafter. Otherwise why didn't they take the TV, the CD player or the DVD player? The safe is what really made me curious. Whoever searched the first floor obviously saw the safe so why didn't they try to bust it open or carry it away to open it somewhere else. Isn't a safe just the kind of thing a burglar would be looking for?" I posed.

"That's very good. I have been trying to figure that out myself. You may be right about the gun shots scaring them off," Tony said.

"Do you think there is another explanation?" I asked.

"I am just keeping my options open. Sometimes if you try too hard to make the facts fit your conclusion you will successfully come up with the wrong answer," Tony said and then smiled at me.

I waited to see if Tony would let me in on what he was thinking but I guess he didn't want me that involved in his investigation. By then the coffee had finished perking and I asked Tony if he had time for a cup.

"Love one," he said.

I poured two cups and took them into the family room and we sat down, me on the sofa and Tony on a wing chair facing me. I noticed him looking around the room at the mess left by the burglars.

"I guess I'll have to start cleaning this up after you leave," I said.

"I have seen a lot more damage done by burglars but I have also seen cases where nothing was out of place except the items that were stolen," Tony said.

Just then a question popped into my head that I didn't want to ask but I knew I had to.

"I guess by now that guy that shot me knows that I survived. Do you think it's likely that he'll come back and try to finish the job?" I asked.

"There is always that chance but I think it is highly unlikely. He knows you're alive but he also knows that you were not able to describe him. Coming after you now would just increase the chance of him getting caught. Are you worried?"

"Not so much for myself, but I am worried about Nicky's safety. I know she didn't sleep well last night and I think it's because she is worried that they might come back," I said.

"I can have the number of patrols through your neighborhood increased for a while if that would help,"

"It would, thanks."

I took a sip of my coffee and decided to change the subject.

"I see you are wearing a new suit today. How are things on the home front?" I asked.

"Much better, thank you. The wife has forgiven me for my stupidity," Tony said.

"Another woman?"

"Almost," Tony said. "Tracy caught me necking with another woman at a party. I had way too much to drink and this woman was flirting with me big time. I got a little carried away. Luckily, Tracy caught me before I went too far. As angry as she was for catching me necking it scares me to think what she would have done if she caught me doing the horizontal mambo with that woman. The only thing that saved my ass was that Tracy knows that I had never done anything like that before."

I was beginning to feel that Tony and I were becoming friends. Maybe I was misreading the situation but I definitely felt comfortable talking to him and he seemed relaxed around me. It's always nice to make new friends.

Tony stayed for a second cup of coffee and then had to leave when he got a call from police dispatch.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess. There really wasn't all that much to clean up but I had to move slowly as I was still pretty weak. The saddest thing about the clean up was picking up the pieces of the beer stein Nicky had bought me in Germany. A lot of things had been tossed around the room but the stein was the only thing broken. It was almost as thought someone broke it just to be mean. Out of the thirteen mugs and steins on the shelf why was that particular stein the one that was broken? It was the most valuable and the only one that had significant sentimental value to me. I was beginning to get very pissed as I thought about it but then I remembered that I had also been shot three times. I decided to try and keep things in perspective.

When I was satisfied with the cleaning I had done on the first floor I went upstairs. I found it a little curious that nothing on the second floor appeared to be out of place. Nicky didn't have much in the way of expensive jewelry but what she had was in the case on top of her dresser. Nothing was missing. This led me to the conclusion that I must have come into the house just after the guy who shot me had gone upstairs, not giving him time to begin searching for valuables. It was beginning to look as though my timing, while causing me to get shot, had prevented the burglars from stealing anything from the house.

When Nicky got home from work that evening there was no longer any sign of what had taken place in the house just a week and a half earlier. When Nicky saw that I had cleaned the house she scolded me.

"You know you're still supposed to be taking it easy," she said.

"I couldn't just sit there and look at the mess any longer," I said. Besides, I felt pretty good all day."

"Well, you don't look so good right now," she said. "You look very pale. You just sit there while I make dinner. If you get up again I'll call Dr. Berger and tell him to put you back in the hospital." Nicky was smiling as she said it.

"Okay, I'll be a good boy," I said. "Please don't send me back to the hospital."

Nicky began to laugh at me. "Just sit while I get your dinner," she said.

After dinner Nicky took me up to bed and changed my bandages. We were both relieved that there didn't seem to be any bleeding or discharge from the wounds. Once she had the fresh bandages on me, Nicky gave me a very tender massage. I guess I had over done things a bit that day. I feel asleep before Nicky finished the massage.

*****

Wednesday morning I got up and had breakfast with Nicky.

"Tonight is the open house for new students at the school," Nicky said. "I can probably get out of it if you would rather I stayed home."

"How late will you be?" I asked.

"It starts at seven o'clock and is scheduled to end at eight-thirty. I should be home by nine o'clock at the latest. I'll come home from school at four and fix dinner and change your bandages before I go to the open house. I'll have to leave here by six-thirty," Nicky said.

"I think you should go," I said. "We need to go on with our regular lives as much as we can,"

As Nicky prepared to leave for work I could see that something was bothering her. It was obvious to me that Nicky was still worried about me. When she came over to kiss me before she left for work, she hugged me a little longer and a little tighter than usual.

"I love you," she whispered in my ear.

"I love you too."

After Nicky left, the house was almost too quiet. I tried to think of something I could do to occupy myself but the only ideas that came to mind were things that would be too physically challenging for me in the condition I was in. I had overdone it the day before and I had promised Nicky and myself that I was going to take it easy that day. I decided to load up the CD player and put it on low. Then I got the Dean Koonce book I had bought recently but hadn't started yet and sat down to read.

I read until Nicky came home, stopping only long enough to eat lunch. Nicky was pleased that I had taken it easy all day but said that I should have put the book down for a couple of hours and taken a nap.

Nicky changed my bandages, fixed dinner and at six-thirty was ready to head over to the high school for the open house. When she left I went into the family room to watch television. Unfortunately the only shows on television were summer repeats so I turned the set off and sat. With nothing to occupy my mind I began to think about the burglary and the shooting again.

Something was beginning to bother me about the whole thing. If this was the team of burglars that Tony thought might be responsible, I couldn't understand how they would have left with nothing. It still wasn't obvious how they got into the house in the first place, which made me very uneasy.

The uneasy feeling I had made me get up and check the safe again. Maybe something was missing from the safe, something that I hadn't noticed on my first inspection. When I got the safe opened I went through all my folders and verified that nothing was missing, but I found that I had overlooked something on my first inspection. I stared at the two $300 vouchers from American Airlines and my legs got weak as the realization of what they meant slowly began to sink in.

I put them back into the safe and then sat down on the sofa to think things through given this new information. When I could come to no other conclusion I shouted out loud, "No fucking way... This cannot be happening. God damn it, Nicky, what have you done?"